Bartok’s Bluebeard sung in English. Unless one is fluent in hungarian, or follows it libretto in hand, it does not really matter what language one hears it into. The manuscript was written in Hungarian and German. After its initial run of performances it received its first official german translation for performances in Germany. The seminal DG Fricsay recording is in German. What is more important is that words and speech rythms are in sync so that the musical line is unaffected. The composer’s son Peter Bartok has devoted a lot of time and care to the subject: http://www.bartokrecords.com/articles/bluebeards-castle/ . The Hassal English translation he criticizes is from 1963. Ormandy’s recording is from 1960, so it’s not clear what translation is being used - and of course Sony’s leaflet offers no comment on the matter, let alone the printed texts !

In any event, this is an immensely moving interpretation, powerful and dramatic when it should be, lyrical and drenched in sorrow. I had goosebumps all over during the last two scenes. Singers Rosalind Elias and Jerome Hines are excellent. This is not a shrewish Judith, rather a girlish, innocent and slightly dumb country girl. Hines is towering both vocally and dramatically. What a deep, plush voice, and what an imposing presence ! The only strange thing is that I kept expecting him to break into Ol’ Man River.

I’d be curious to read David Hurwitz’ review of this disc. He wrote about it at Classicstoday, but in the Insider (paying) portion of the web site. The opening paragraph was tantalizing.

Thanks for this write-up, André. At first, I wasn’t going to consider this recording even though I did mention it in the ’New Releases’ thread, but you do make a strong case for it. This is one of the only operas where I follow along with the libretto (most of the time at least), I’m planning to do the same thing with Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, which I have done before years ago, but I’d love to do again as it’s such an enriching journey.

Edit: I just bought it. Temptation got the better of me.

« Last Edit: March 13, 2018, 06:52:32 PM by Mirror Image »

Logged

"I love music passionately. And because I love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.” - Claude Debussy

The performers clearly have immense affection for the music at hand and communicate a joy of making music together. Some of the slow tempi may raise eyebrows, but justification is found in the detailed, delicate instrumental embroidery. Phrasing is always sharp, textures clean and luminous. Participants were drawn from a roster of well-known string quartet players, renowned soloists or first desks from major american symphony orchestras, along with some Old World musicians. Casals had a way of assembling people from seemingly disparate cultural backgrounds into a self-effacing body of artists dedicated to musical truth.

I was (am) superimpressed with this. I've always loved Vivaldi, and it's easy to get swept up in a good 4 Seasons. But this is different, I think. More depth and darkness than you usually find in Baroque. Lots of timbre and angst in the strings, and truly SOTA sound. Pity it's OOP.

I was (am) superimpressed with this. I've always loved Vivaldi, and it's easy to get swept up in a good 4 Seasons. But this is different, I think. More depth and darkness than you usually find in Baroque. Lots of timbre and angst in the strings, and truly SOTA sound. Pity it's OOP.

1) CD 23 of the 23 CD + 1 DVD set of pianist Clifford Curzon's recordings for DECCA. The entire CD is divided into two large sections, both centering around conversations with interviewers. The first section, called "Desert Island discs," is with Roy Plomley, a critic, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 17 JUN 1978 pprovided by the BBC and EMI. That conversation can be found @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBTshRYyeUs and lasts 30'44. The other is a conversation with Alan Blyth recorded 18 SEP 1972, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 12 FEB 1973. It lasts 38'19. I could not find the whole conversation on YouTube, but 17'34 of it can be found @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqUki9GQuQQ This is the part of the conversation in which he talks about his two most important teachers, Wanda Landowska and Artur Schnabel. One of the interesting things about it was that Schnabel was a Communist sympathizer for a long time, and he often had to endure a political rant that lasted as long as 2 hours before his they started talking about piano. On one occasion, Schnabel's wife came in the room and looked down her nose at Schnabel and reminded him the Clifford had come for a piano lesson. He was, however, later disillussioned after two tours of the Soviet Union. Another interesting thing was that Landowska had a visceral dislike for Schnabel, and Schnabel had a more nuanced, but still critical, view of Landowska. Its a very interesting conversation. I recommend it.

This album is entitled, "A Triptych Memorial to My Rosemarie, Part I." Pelosi's notes say, "Aside from my music, the central events of my life are two: meeting my future wife...and losing her to cancer. In every possible sense of the word, she filled my world: in her creative vitality and brilliance, her discipline in the service of an absolutley uncompromising spirtual focus and integrity, and her love of nature and humanity--her love for me. What remains after her death is my music, and the tortuous passage of time. Hence this album." His wife, Rosemarie Koczy, died 12 DEC 2007 of cancer.

Louis Pelosi has his own website, and at that site he includes some reviews, including interviews with reviewers from Fanfare Magazine, to which I subscribe--a magazine that does 6 issues a year and makes a serious attempt to review nearly every classical CD issued in the USA. Pelosi has reprinted some of this material at his website and you can read it @ http://louis-pelosi-composer.com/critical-commentary/ It reviews this CD, and others of his work.

As you can see by the headnote, the whole CD, unlike all the others in the series, consists entirely of one work which is, by far, Villa Lobos's longest symphony. It is really a symphony-oratorio, as the headnote indicates. It should also be noted that this performance is, at 73'30, somewhat more expansive than the world premiere radio broadcast of the work, conducted by Villa-Lobos, was just over 67 minutes long. He wrote it to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city of Sao Paolo. But he finished work on it in NYC, and the world premiere performance, under his baton, was in Paris on 4 APR 1957. It is scored for tenor, baritone, and bass soloists, mixed choir, and an orchestra consisting of 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, timpani, tam-tam, cymbals, chocalho, coconut hulls, lion's roar, bells, gong, sleigh bells, small frame drum, bass drum, xylophone, marimba, celesta, 2 harps, piano, organ, and strings.Per Wikipedia, "The first movement is for the orchestra alone, and serves as an overture to the four remaining movements, which feature the vocal soloists and choirs. The movement is in sectional form, dominated by a principal melodic motif consisting of an upper-neighbour note figure followed by an upward leap. This motif is found in all five of the main sections of the movement, which are differentiated by tempo, key area (C, B♭, E, C, and C), instrumentation, rhythms, harmonies, and specific transformations of the main motif. The second theme of the first of these sections is the only one not derived from the core motif. Quasi-tonal quartal harmonies are especially evident, but alternate with polychords in dense ostinato textures and more thinly orchestrated tonal passages. The fourth section, which is developmental, begins with an abrupt change of tempo and a short tonal fugato in the strings (Enyart 1984, 330, 332–33, 337, 340–41)."I can tell you that this symphony is overwhelming in its emotional impact. It is to Villa Lobos's ouvre what the Ninth Symphony and the Missa Solemnis are to Beethoven, what the Resurrection symphony is to Mahler.

As I interpret it? (Not my expression.) That the playing is of the highest quality, like an artwork of genius exhibited in a museum; and also that there is a layer of glass separating that artwork from the museum-goer.

All miniatures except for the Dance Poem, which (as well as being the only of these I own on CD thus far) I think is an important step in the transition of Bridge's style. He's just starting to leave the nice salon tunes behind.